


innocence died screaming

by Kangoo



Series: Front toward enemy [19]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Death Wish, Gen, He Had It Coming™, Uldren gets beaten up that's it that's the fic, roaring rampage of revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 18:10:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20030137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kangoo/pseuds/Kangoo
Summary: Razel gets a hold of Uldren, and refuses to be merciful





	innocence died screaming

**Author's Note:**

> this is... pure wish fulfillment on my part. i love uldren as a character but i want to punch him SO BAD
> 
> title is from hozier's "from eden"

The Voice of Riven disappears in a burst of Darkness and the echo of an eldritch scream, burning into nothing from Razel's last blow and taking his sword with it.

As for Uldren, liberated from its clutches, he wavers on unsteady feet, just the half second it takes for his body to remember gravity and collapse like a puppet with its strings cut.

He never hits the ground.

What he does hit – or rather what hits _him_ – is Razel's fist. It catches him in the stomach, would have winded him if he had any air left to lose. Instead it sends him flying back, the blow powerful even without Solar power behind it. He crashes against the floor and it's hard to tell if the cracking sound comes from the ground or his back.

"Razel!" Petra cries, more surprised than disapproving. They've never been too friendly, Uldren and her. Close because of a shared love for Mara more than genuine friendship. After what he's done it stands to reason that she'd let Razel get a good punch in.

But Razel doesn't stop here. Doesn't even seem to hear her when she repeats his name as a warning. He strides toward Uldren, embers trailing in his wake, flames licking at his skin. He's lost his gloves at some point, burned against his Sunsinger sword or torn against Scorn or Taken, but the burn disappear as soon as they form on his bare skin. _Guardians_, Uldren thinks scornfully. Mindless brutes, uncaring of the fragility of life.

As he moves forward, none of the grace of a stalking predator and all of the danger, he tears his helmet off and throws it behind him, uncaring of the clatter as it bounces against the stone floor and the glass visor cracks. 

(Poor floor doesn't deserve the abuse it's going through at the Guardian's hand.)

Under it his hair is a mess, his mouth twisted in rage, sharp teeth bared, but his eyes –

His eyes flash fire-bright, more than a mere Awoken glow, Solar energy magnified by the shine of unshed tears. Anger or sorrow, Uldren can't tell.

And then he's on Uldren, fisting his collar and dragging him up to his level. It's am awkward position, Razel kneeling over him like that, but there's an alien fear spreading through his veins like hoarfrost and he can only gape as Razel gets in his face, spitting in rage.

Uldren doesn't let him get a word in edgewise. He's always been too much of a smartass for his own good, according to Jolyon. If he's going to die anyway, he won't go quietly.

"Still angry about Cayde-6 then?" He asks, mock-surprised. He knows, now, how popular Cayde-6 was. How loved. Killing him was a deliberate attack on anyone but Cayde himself, but the effect it had... Oh, it was definitely a perk, knocking Guardians down a peg or two.

It doesn't have the desired effect. Razel doesn't fly into a rage, only freezes, fingers tightening against Uldren's collar.

"How could you?" He growls, voice hoarse from disuse. He sounds so angry, so sad, so _outraged_ it all but makes up for the lack of volume. Softer, so anguished it makes Uldren's teeth hurt, he repeats, "How _could_ you? He was the best of us, he was- _he was my best friend_."

Uldren feels a pang in his chest, not for this pathetic Guardian but for Mara, dead and gone–

And never to be brought back, by the look of things.

"People die," he snarls, pitiless in his grief.

Razel pushes him down unexpectedly, slams him against the floor. "He didn't die!" He roars. "You _killed_ him! You-"

He raises a fist, brings it down on Uldren's face. 

"Killed!" Another punch, like punctuation. "Cayde!"

The impact of the third makes his head whip to the side. He grimaces, cheek pressed against the cold stone, and the movement makes his lower lip sting where he cut it on his teeth. He prods a loosened teeth with his tongue and tastes only blood coppery and bitter. 

Out the corner of his eye he can see Petra, hovering a few feet from them. Not knowing how to intervene, unsure if she even wants to. 

Uldren's attention is brought back to Razel by a hand gripping his jaw, jarring his head back to look into Razel's eyes. He looks frustrated now, on top of the mess of bitter brief tangled in his burning glare.

"Not much fun hitting a guy who's already down, huh?"

He doesn't reply, just punches Uldren – this time there's a crack and pain, hotter and sharper than the rest, blooms in his face as his nose breaks. 

"Though I guess killing him was fun-"

Another blow, so hard it makes his vision go black for a painful second. 

"Pathetic," he spits. He's never known how to stop. "He was pathetic without your precious Light, crawling-"

"Shut up!" Another punch. "_Shut up_!" And another. The pain blurs together

He grins, teeth as bloody as the rest of his face. It's a cruel expression on him. "Have you tried shooting me? It worked on him-"

The last thing he sees before blacking out are bruised, bloody knuckles, already knitting back together.

He's not out for long – ten, thirty seconds maybe. He could always take a beating. What was it Mara said? Measuring his worth by the things he could survive? Yeah, that sounds about right.

Razel... Isn't hitting him anymore. He's staring blindly at Uldren, eyes hazy with a numb kind of despair. Uldren coughs, tries to clear his throat, and he blinks out of his daze, just slightly. His eyes scrunch up weirdly and then he half collapses on top of Uldren, shoulders shaking with – laughter? No, he's... Sobbing, tears finally spilling from his eyes and down his cheeks, landing like warm rain on Uldren's bruised skin. He makes barely a sound and his hand shakes against Uldren's collarbone, fingers tightening around his collar until they've gone white as if it's the only thing anchoring him there. His other hand claws against the ground, bearing his weight.

"You killed him," he chokes out, wet hiccups breaking his words. "He's dead, he's never coming back, you _killed him_, you killed my best friend, he's gone-"

Petra takes a step toward them, looking worryingly close to intervening – stopping Razel, maybe. Uldren bares his teeth in another cruel smile and grits out, "And I'm still there."

Razel nods numbly, fingers tightening briefly then releasing him completely. He stumbles to his feet, then a few steps back, as if giving up–

As if sparing him–

_No_, Uldren thinks, thinking of an eternity in the dark of the Prison of Elders, thinking of dead sisters, thinking of nothing at all but the awful possibility that there might be some mercy left in that man.

Then Razel bends down to pick Cayde's gun, left where Uldren dropped it, and he exhales a sigh of bitter relief.

"Razel-" Petra says, jerking forward as if to put herself between him and Uldren. But she doesn't have anything to say, doesn't want to stop him anymore than he wants to be stopped, than _Uldren_ wants him to be stopped. She unholsters her sidearm and steps up next to him. Two avengers in bright pink armor, the sight so odd Uldren feels laughter bubbles up in his throat. 

「Wait!」 Another voice – Razel's Ghost, appearing in a puff of Light. 

「Think about what you're doing. What would Cayde think of you? What would Cayde _do_?」

Razel aims the gun at Uldren's head. "I know exactly what he would do," He says, soft and low, tired. Like all the fight has left him, like he's only up out of spite, or momentum. Like he doesn't dare stop in fear that he can never stand back up again. 

「Then-」

"I'm not Cayde."

_I've _lost_ Cayde_, he doesn't say. Uldren hears it, an echo of his own voice, words he's used as motive and excuse both countless times in the last few years.

「What would he _want_ you to do, then?」

"I don't know." He cocks the gun. "I don't care."

He squeezes the trigger.

(And there is mercy no more.)

**Author's Note:**

> Final sentence is from hozier's "it will come back" and was like. My second title choice.


End file.
